Former Senator Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) downplayed the condemnation of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) for violating Senate Rule XIX.
Santorum explained on CNN Wednesday morning that Rule XIX prohibits senators from referring to one another on the Senate floor directly by name and instead as, "Gentlelady or Gentleman from a particular state."
"The whole reason for these rules is to keep the temperature down and to keep decorum in the Senate, to make it a deliberative body, so you don't have personal attacks, you're not directly addressing a senator accusing them or something, so all of this is in place and has been for hundreds of years to keep the temperature down," Santorum said.
Santorum also commented on his own history of his brush with Rule XIX. When asked about his past, Santorum joked and explained the difference between what happened to him and what happened to Warren.
"I'm not necessarily going to revisit those days," Santorum said.
"Sometimes you get a little heated when you get up on the floor and you directly address a senator, you call them out directly on something and they say you can't do that and then you back off and in the case of Elizabeth Warren she didn't back off," he explained. "She made those comments, she said that she agreed with those comments and she suffered the consequences."